WWE Crown Jewel is still set for November 7 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but will now take place in a smaller venue.
Taking place during Riyadh Season, up until recently the WWE PLE was set to take place at Riyadh Season Stadium, with footage emerging showing construction underway.
At the time of writing, the venue is now listed as ‘The Venue’ in Riyadh, according to the listing on WeBook.
With just a week to go until WWE Crown Jewel, let’s take a look at how the PLE is shaping up:
Four matches announced
With Sami Zayn’s victory over Trick Williams, it’ll be the Undisputed WWE Champion against Roman Reigns to crown the Crown Jewel Champion. Liv Morgan goes up against Chelsea Green to determine the women’s Crown Jewel Champion, with the Women’s World Champion recently mocking her SmackDown counterpart.
The card will also see the World Tag Team Championship defended for the first time since The Vision recaptured them back in July, taking on Penta & Je’Von Evans. Meanwhile, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton will face each other in a Street Fight.
Big show, small venue
By all accounts, Riyadh Season Stadium was being configured to house at least 40,000 attendees, with The Venue at ANB Arena offering a much lower capacity of just 8,000.
Official Riyadh Season social media stated that “all ticket holders will receive a full refund, and ticket will be re-released to everyone within the next 48 hours” following the venue change announcement earlier this week. At the time of that post, the new home wasn’t specified, just the show was being moved.
The move ‘makes all the sense in the world’
Before the new home was announced, Dave Meltzer would address plans to move from an outdoor venue to an indoor one on Wrestling Observer Radio, saying:
“Some people, when it was first announced, thought something big was up, but essentially, the claim is that it is safer to run the show indoors than outdoors, which makes all the sense in the world.”
With ongoing tensions in the region, hostile attacks and missile strikes that have killed and injured citizens at Riyadh airport, the relative safety of an indoor versus outdoor venue is one that is very much up for debate.
What is clear, however, is that fewer fans will be in attendance at a much smaller indoor venue, which plays host to Canelo vs Mbilli on October 31 and Six Kings Slam, with the tennis tournament originally scheduled for October and now moved to December 27 – 30.
The current security status in Saudi Arabia
The October 23 travel advisory from the U.S. Department of State warns citizens to “reconsider travel”, with some areas of Saudi Arabia also falling under “do not travel”.
Should the whole region move to a Level 4, it would put the whole of Saudi Arabia in a “do not travel” category for US citizens.
The negative impact of cancelling WWE Crown Jewel
The recent TKO town hall meeting saw Mark Shapiro comment on tensions in Saudi Arabia and how a Crown Jewel cancellation could impact the company.
POST Wrestling obtained audio of the meeting, which includes the TKO President and Chief Operating Officer saying that the company “will not hesitate” to cancel events in the Middle East if there is a “danger or a further escalation”.
The executive would go on to note that cancelling events “will certainly have an impact on our year in a very negative way.”
To make sure you stay up to date with all the biggest wrestling and WrestleTalk news, follow us on Threads by clicking this link!
Comments.
Loading comments…